World Press Freedom Day

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On July 1 a public security law is due to come into force in Spain amid an increasingly vocal chorus of concern among the media and press freedom groups. The bill--dubbed the "ley mordaza," or "gag law," by opposition groups--would define protests in front of parliament and other government buildings as a "disturbance of public safety," and ban the "unauthorized use" of images of law enforcement authorities or riot police. The punishment for either offense will be a €30,000 ($33,000) fine.

Last week, I met a Cameroonian journalist who worked in the Congo until he fled following a series of threats and an attack on his home by armed men who assaulted his sister. Elie Smith, a TV host who documented alleged abuses by police and was outspoken in his criticism of the government, said he thought he had been under surveillance and that he had received multiple threats via text message.

New
York, April 11, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists congratulates Turkish
investigative journalist and book author Ahmet Şık on being awarded UNESCO's
prestigious Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The annual prize, named after
slain Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza, honors a journalist or
organization that "has made an outstanding contribution to the defense of press
freedom." Şık will receive the award on May 2 at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris,
as part of the UNESCO celebrations for World Press Freedom Day.

Most governments, even repressive ones, at least give lip
service to supporting freedom of the press--especially on World
Press Freedom Day, May 3. But in Liberia this month, Othello Daniel Warrick,
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's chief security aide, shocked local
journalists by threatening them and calling them "terrorists" at a public event
to mark the occasion, according to news reports
and local media
groups.

Tags:

Dear Chairperson Zuma: We ask that you mark World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2013, by calling for the release of all journalists imprisoned in Africa and appealing for justice in the murders of journalists killed in the line of duty.

Mujahid Kakar, head of news and current affairs for
Afghanistan’s Moby Media Group, was at the United Nations on Monday to give a speech on
World Press Freedom Day. He stopped by CPJ’s office afterward, and we talked
for more than an hour about journalism in Afghanistan. Kakar, left, whose oversight includes the influential Tolo TV, made a string of
important points concerning lapses in professionalism, the importance of
international support, and the challenges that front-line journalists face from
all sides. I’ll bullet-point some of them, and then quote Kakar about what he
felt was the most important part of his message:

Yesterday was a good one for press freedom. “The United States joins the international community in celebrating World Press Freedom Day,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a statement. “Wherever independent media are under threat, accountable governance and human freedom are undermined.” She went on to defend harassed or jailed bloggers in nations from Cuba to Burma. Clinton further noted that 71 journalists, citing CPJ figures, were killed last year, many murdered with impunity.

Judging by what’s transpired in recent weeks, press freedom in
Egypt is in a deplorable state. To hear that Egyptian police abused and
illegally detained peaceful protestors who took to the streets on
April 6 is par for the course. To read that police and
plainclothes thugs also beat and detained journalists, confiscating and
destroying video footage and notes, is revolting but, unfortunately, quite predictable.
But to learn that elements of the state security apparatus may also have posed as
journalists to monitor civil society and opposition activists marks a new low
for the Egyptian state.

Today, May 3, is World Press Freedom Day. But on this day,
this year, I am not thinking about the dangers for the many journalists whose
bylines I’ve come to associate with places like Mogadishu or Manila, Kabul or
Islamabad. It’s not because I don’t have immense respect for them and for the
risks they take to bring their readers essential reports from some of the most
dangerous corners of the world. I do.